1. I’m not a teacher
2. I work part-time for Planned Parenthood, and write sex educational pieces on a regular basis.
3. I don’t actually work in the education department or do any kind of teaching in a classroom setting. But I’d be happy to move to that department.
4. I’m not a teacher because I don’t like teaching and have extremely little patience. If I was an English teacher, I’d probably make kids cry with my marking up of their essays. But teaching sex ed would be a markedly different experience. So yeah, I imagine that if I ever was going to teach anything, sex education would probably be my pick, and would have the highest chance of my excelling at it.
5. But this is kind of a silly conversation, though. Because when people complain about teaching standards for any other subject, no one makes the ridiculous “why don’t you teach it?” argument. Because the high school lessons that you’re most likely to apply in the real world are apparently the ones that we have a right to feel most resentful about providing.

As for the “real men or women don’t ask” thing, yes, your description is of course the official meaning behind the phrase. But I don’t find the horrendous wording to be just an unfortunate mistake, either. They don’t WANT people to talk about sex, because like you said, talking gives people power. Asking your partner if they want to have sex instead of just assuming that they do or not giving a shit either way is something we need to be adamantly encouraging. But the anti-choice/sex crowd knows that asking a person if they want to have sex gives the person the opportunity to say “yes.” I don’t think I’m at all exaggerating when I say that the programs they run and the materials they produce show they are more than willing to uphold rape culture in pursuit of their goal to make everyone terrified of and embarassed about sex. This is just one of many examples. Another would be all of the scary possession language surrounding the “save your self for your husband” and “give your virginity as a gift to your husband” rhetoric.

Of course, the real meaning is that Real Men and Women (TM) don’t ask because they respect their dates too much to want to have sex with them, but it’s a good point. One of the most damaging things these programs do (in my opinion, from the research I’ve done) is deprive adolescents of the opportunity to get comfortable with talking about sex in any way other than saying “no” to it. Adolescents need to find their own voice so that they can articulate what they are and are not comfortable with, and what they require from their partner (like, condoms and lube and such). It does not help to give them what you want them to say, or give them an assignment where they can come up with their own version of what you want them to say. Having your own voice and being able to use it is power. (The characters on Buffy the Vampire Slayer were a great example of this. How I miss that show . . .)

But most disturbing of all is #14: “Real men or women don’t even ask.” That’s just fucking awesome. “Kids, don’t have sex before you enter into a chaste and god-approved heterosexual marriage. But if you do have sex, make sure that it’s rape.”

It’s a good thing I’m home alone right now, because I really feel like punching someone. Anyone else need a drink?

Cara, you crack me up. Which is especially good since this is one of those things that normally makes me want to punch the wall. It’s not just this issue. It’s the fact that they can run around screaming “NOT FACTUAL!” When the curricula that they support are just a notch below dystopian science fiction. Click my name for my picasa site, which has my artwork relating to Abstinence-Only programs. And recently I’ve been going through my notes looking for what I want to do next, and I found this gem of a quote: “When you are not married, you’re not a family yet – so, don’t start family planning.” (Don’t think about that too long or it could cause brain damage.)